• Paris, 14th century 
  • Ivory
  • Inv. 125

Diptych with scenes from the Passion of Christ

This diptych in relief, for private devotions, is one of many produced in Paris workshops from the 14th century onwards, the result of the collaboration of the sculptor with the painter and silversmith.

Frames ornamented with rosettes separate the various registers that still retain traces of the original polychrome. The scenes represented are of the Passion of Christ, beginning from the lower left with the Flagellation and Christ on the way to Calvary. The narration continues, in the upper left register with the Crucifixion scene and goes on, in the upper right register with the Descent from the Cross and, finally, in the lower right register, is the Entombment.

Diptychs and triptychs in ivory served the church as a means of preaching the Gospel at a time when books and reading were the privilege of a small minority. Besides being very easy to carry they had great teaching value for the scenes from the Old and New Testaments were recounted through the pictorial language and easily memorised.

Cottereau Collection; Martin Le Roy Collection. Acquired by Calouste Gulbenkian, through M. Owen, at the sale of the Martin Le Roy Collection, Georges Petit Gallery, 27 February 1918.

H. 19.5 cm; W. 23 cm 

Goffen 1995

Rona Goffen (ed.), Museums Discovered. The Calouste Gulbenkian Museum. Fort Lauderdale, Florida: Woodbine Books, 1995, p. 40–1.

Updated on 09 june 2022

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